Historical figure · People
Cary Grant
Fit above everything, in the same handful of things, for forty years.
Grant's approach was reductive: excellent, conventionally cut tailoring in a narrow range of greys and blues, fitted with unusual care, and repeated. He wrote about clothing himself, and his stated principle, that clothes should be unremarkable and immaculately fitted, is the clearest articulation of the classical position on record.
The method
A narrow palette, a consistent silhouette, and obsessive attention to fit, particularly the shoulder and the collar, which he is documented as having adjusted repeatedly. He favoured a slightly wider trouser and a jacket cut with room in the chest.
He also wore the same things for decades, which is the part most often overlooked. The absence of variety was deliberate.
In his own words
Grant wrote about his approach and the substance of it was that clothing should not be noticed: that a man should be remembered rather than his suit, and that the way to achieve this was fit rather than restraint in colour alone. It is a genuinely useful position and it is also the hardest to execute, because unremarkable clothing has nothing to distract from a poor fit.
Why it is harder than it looks
Unremarkable clothing has nothing to distract from a poor fit. A bold check or an unusual colour gives the eye somewhere else to go; a plain grey suit is judged entirely on how it sits. That is why the classical position (restrained cloth, conventional cut, obsessive fit) is the most demanding one available and not the safe one it appears to be.
At a glance
Picture credits 1
- Cary Grant Blue Plaque (54163702048): Photograph · Department for Culture, Media and Sport · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain